This Day in Failure: January 21

2009: In a rare “do-over,” Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts delivers the presidential oath of office to Barack Obama for a second time, one day after a verbal misstep by Roberts during Obama’s Inauguration Day swearing-in prompted Barack to stumble over the words too. White House counsel Greg Craig attributes the decision to repeat the ceremony—held in the White House Map Room—to “an abundance of caution.”

2009: New Jersey Institute of Technology’s men’s basketball team ends its 51-game losing streak, earning a 61-51 victory over fellow Division I independent Bryant University. NJIT’s previous win came against Longwood University on February 19, 2007.

2004: Britain’s top hiking magazine, Trail, issues an apology for inadvertently publishing directions in its February 2004 issue that would lead climbers to plunge off the North Face of Ben Nevis, Scotland's tallest mountain.

1990: John McEnroe becomes the first player ever kicked out of the Australian Open for misconduct—and the first bounced from a Grand Slam tournament since Willie Alvarez (Columbia) at the 1963 French Open—ejected while leading a fourth-round match against Mikael Pernfors of Sweden 6-1, 4-6, 7-5, 2-4. McEnroe is cited for “unsportsmanlike conduct,” “racket abuse,” and swearing at an official, thereby automatically disqualified under new ATP Tour rules adopted just three weeks earlier. After the match, McEnroe admits he should have known the new rules, which call for ejection after three citations, as opposed to the four previously allowed. Later, McEnroe is fined $5,000 for swearing at chief of supervisors Ken Farrar, $1,000 for defaulting, and $500 for breaking his racket. “From a promoter’s point of view, it’s a tragedy,” says Open director Colin Stubbs, alluding to McEnroe’s popularity among fans, who had showered the court with boos and whistles following the American star’s ejection.

1968: A B-52 bomber carrying four Mark 28 hydrogen bombs crashes near Thule Air Base, Greenland, detonating the high explosive in all four bombs and spreading radioactive debris over miles of ice. It takes U.S. personnel four months to clean up the crash site.